Review of Easy Rider (1969) by Emile H — 03 Aug 2016

Two bikers score some drugs in Mexico, sell it for a tidy profit in California, and embark on a road trip to a whorehouse in New Orleans. They get into a large assortment of misadventures along the way.

Easy Rider has an immense reputation since it made Jack Nicholson famous, altered how film soundtracks were put together, transformed the career trajectory of star/director Dennis Hopper, brought techniques of French New Wave to American audiences, rewrote expectations as to how successful independent film could be, and ushered in a wave of gritty, progressive, and experimental movies that defined American pop culture throughout the 1970's.

While I do acknowledge all of these accomplishments, I found the actual film itself to be interesting a hell of a lot more often than I found it to be great. Easy Rider is certainly worth checking out, but I largely see it as an intriguing time capsule that laid groundwork for the much better films that followed in its wake.